Make it stop…

Ten days.

TEN.

Then we can all our mops and buckets out and get all this mud cleaned up.  OK.  I know who I’m voting for.  and despite all that, I can’t avert my eyes from the train wreck that is the McCain-Palin ticket.  He’s like the old guy at the end of every Scooby Doo episode, and she’s like the Britney Spears of politics, I’m talkin’ bald, strung out Britney Spears.  They’re hemorraging polling points and republican supporters like they’re standing, arms outstretched, on the bow of the Titanic.

And the 20 year old girl, a McCain supporter, who was supposedly attacked by a 6′4″ black male Obama supporter apparently made the whole story up.  In the immortal words of Little John, “WHAT?”

Then, of course, there’s this:

Ten days.

An Incomplete list of Famous Filipinos

In honor of Filipino American Heritage Month, and in the spirit of Adam Sandler’s Hanukkah Song, here’s a list of famous Filipinos just like you and me…

Actors/Stage/Film/TV Performers

Rachel Louise Grant De Longueuil aka Rachel Grant actress (Die Another Day)
Dante Basco (Rufio in Hook), director, producer.
Darion Basco, actor, director, producer.
Tia Carrere (Wayne’s World)
Phoebe Cates (Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Gremlins, Gremlins 2, Drop Dead Fred)
Mark Dacascos – actor, martial artist, The Chairman of Iron Chef America.
Tamlyn Tomita (The Joy Luck Club and The Karate Kid, Part II)
Hervé Villechaize (Tattoo from Fantasy Island)
Jose Llana, broadway actor, Drama Desk Award Winner.
Alec Mapa (Half & Half, Desperate Housewives, Ugly Betty)
Vanessa Minnillo, model, host MTV’s TRL.
Paolo Montalban (Mortal Kombat)
Lou Diamond Phillips (La Bamba)
Victoria Principal (Dallas)
Ernie Reyes Jr., martial artist (Rush Hour 2, The Rundown, Indiana Jones & the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull)
Rob Schneider (Saturday Night Live, The Hot Chick, Deuce Bigalow) “Mom’s family had the better food; Dad’s family had the better jokes.”
Shannyn Sossamon (40 Days and 40 Nights, A Knight’s Tale)
Anna Maria Perez de Tagle – actress (Ashley from Hannah Montana).
Vanessa Anne Hudgens (High School Musical)
Lea Salonga, Tony Award winner (Miss Saigon, Princess Jasmine in Disney’s Aladdin and Mulan in Mulan)
Cris Judd, actor, choreographer, J-Lo’s ex.
Cheryl Burke (Dancing with the Stars)
Batista (WWE)

Music Industry

Apl.de.ap, hip hop musician, (The Black Eyed Peas)
Chad Hugo, producer (The Neptunes)
Cassie (Cassandra Vergara Ventura)– R&B, pop and hiphop singer, and former fashion model. She is best known by her stage name Cassie and for the hit song “Me & U”.
Jocelyn Enriquez
Enrique Iglesias
Julio Iglesias Jr
Nicole Scherzinger – lead singer for the Pussycat Dolls.
Kirk Hammett (Metallica)

Reality TV

Sandra McCoy – actress, former contestant in Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll.
Jordan Segundo – singer, American Idol semi-finalist (Season 2).
A.J. Tabaldo – American Idol contestant (season 6).
Jasmine Trias – American Idol contestant (Season 3).
Camile Velasco (1985–) American Idol contestant (Season 3)
Melissa Reyes – Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll contestant.
Asia Nitollano – Pussycat Dolls Present: The Search for the Next Doll winner; she’s Joe Bataan’s daughter.

Joe the Plumber? Make way for Chad the Douchebag

Two of the main tenets of the Republican Party is that they’re in favor of small government (states’ rights) and a free market economy versus the Democrats who are largely in favor of federalizing: unifying the country under federal laws and creating federal programs to help the underprivileged, etc.  Ok, that might be oversimplifying but there’s a point in here somewhere.

One of McCain’s talking points in this campaign is that he wants the American people, like Joe the Plumber, to “keep your wealth” so that you can choose how best to spend it.  His economic plan and his health plan are both based on this idea.  Here’s the problem with that:  People don’t know how to spend their own money.  People are greedy.  People are hoarders.

Case in point:  Throughout the history of American culture, people have been dining out.  And despite a long history of slimy lounge singers and cheesy comedians reminding you to tip your servers, there are still a strong majority of people who don’t know how to leave a decent tip.  Consider this:  Chad the Douchebag and his four buddies are going out for a meal.  The bill comes to about $100 after appetizers, entrees, drinks, and dessert.  A good tip in this case would be about $20.  However, with the shitty economy and all the hard work he does to make his money, Chad decides that since he doesn’t feel like it he’s just gonna leave a few bucks and run out on the town to let the shenanigans ensue.  After all, this means more drinks and lap dances for Chad.  He’s not required to pay his server his $20, so he doesn’t.

[Let's take a quick look at the logic here.  He's already spending $100 on a meal when he could be home eating his ramen noodles or a totino's party pizza.  But no, he's decided to go out, bypassing the Micky-D's around the corner and knowing full well that there will be a person providing a specific service to him.  He's already spending $100 with his buddies, what's $20 more for the above average service he's just received?]

This might happen to the poor server a couple times a day (especially when times are tough like, say, nowadays), and he’s no longer able to make rent, pay bills, and he becomes a burden on the state and the taxpayers end up shouldering that burden.

The moral of the story?  Most people look after themselves before they even begin to think about their country or their society, as in ME first, Country second… or maybe third.  Letting you decide how to spend your money sounds great in theory.  In an ideal world we would all be benevolent citizens who know how to give credit where credit is due.  But in practice I, for one, have learned that when the chips are down, most people are looking out for #1.  And we all end up footing the bill anyway, so why not “spread the wealth around” by setting ourselves up to help each other out before things get dire?

In Other News: The heat has been turned on in my building

Well, kids, I made it back safe and sound to Minneapolis.  The drive out and back to Seattle would have otherwise made me want to scoop my eyes out with a melon baller if it weren’t for my very cool and very funny roommate.  We drove straight through, 24 hours without stopping… with pitstops it was about 28.

On the way out, we stopped at this place called Rockford Coffee in Bozeman, MT.  I stuck to my guns and ordered a green tea.  My roommate swore he saw Aaron Eckhart (Thank You for Smoking, The Dark Knight) sitting with his laptop at one of the tables and stared at him in a way that made even me uncomfortable.  As it turns out, well according to wikipedia at least, Aaron Eckhart owns a ranch in Montana.

We stopped at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD on the way back.  Gym covered with corn.  There’s a creepy Enchanted Doll Museum across the street.

On our way out of town we decided to grab a bite to eat.  There was a place called Chef Louie’s that looked, from the outside, much like a diner/greasy spoon type of joint.  There was a big blaze orange banner that read, “Welcome Hunters.”  Little did we know that our pajama pants and sweats might look a little bit out of place as this was one of the nicest places in town.  Chandeliers.  Things on the menu for “Market Price.”  Yup.  We’re classy.

The meat of the sandwich was the actual trip to Seattle.  I’ll spare you the gory details… Seattle is a great town.  Of the 3 days we were there, it only drizzled a bit overnight, but was otherwise partly cloudy.  Surrounded by lots of coffee–It was explained to me that the lack of exposure to the sun necessitates much of the city’s caffiene habit.  I’d believe it.  But I still kept to the code and drank Chai.

I visited Bruce Lee’s grave.  I didn’t take a picture, and here’s why:  I was a little bit appalled at the general disrespect with which people carried themselves while visiting his gravesite.  There is little pomp and circumstance associated with it; it’s just a regular plot in a regular cemetary.  Obviously, the headstones are nicer than most, but it’s surprisingly simple.  While looking for directions within the cemetery, we stumbled across a statistic that said that the grass around the headstone needs to be replaced every couple months because of all the foot traffic.  Apparently, hundreds of people come each day.

You’d think that people might carry themselves with a sense of reverence when you’re among people’s dead relatives, let alone someone who contributed to the world as much intellectually as well as artistically as Bruce Lee did.  But no, there were people sitting on his headstone, posing for goofy pictures, and generally laughing it up.  I have a great respect for Bruce Lee–a respect that goes beyond geeking out to the several T-shirts I own.  He was a philosopher and a model for self actualization.  So to see people who obviously viewed him with cultish one-dimensionality, and who thought that taking a picture strattling Bruce Lee’s headstone would be funny, was a bit much for me.  That said, it would definitely suck to have the gravesite next to Bruce and Brandon.

Otherwise, Seattle is definitely a place I could see myself living for a bit… Rain, coffee and all.  I met some really cool actors who tried their best to sell me on Seattle, not that they needed to.

I heard through the grapevine that after we left Minnesota, the weather turned warm it was in the 70s in Minneapolis.  Seattle was 50s-60s, so I can’t complain that much.  Only that we missed a few really nice fall days in Minneapolis.  Oh well.  At least the landlord turned our heat on.

Reason Filipinos are cool #329

We interrupt the regularly scheduled whiny post about being wronged (or somehow otherwise betrayed) to bring you this service announcement:

Filipinos invented the Yo-Yo.

Ok, this is an oft disputed fact, but the fact of the matter is that pre-colonial Filipinos are among the possible originators of the modern day Yo-Yo.  16th Century Filipinos used a weapon that consisted of a stone connected to a length of rope which they could drop from a tree to injure their prey.  If they missed, the could quickly retrieve the stone for a second try.  As the weapon evolved, the stone was sharpened, and eventually replaced by wooden disks that could be studded with either stone or wooden spikes.  This is believed to be the predecessor to the modern Yo-Yo, but this is where the kind of people who would argue about this kind of thing begin to disagree.  Did it come from China to the Philippines or the other way around before eventually travelling to Greece via the silk road?

What the historical-types can agree on is that the name Yo-Yo was coined by Pedro Flores, a law student and bellboy at a California hotel who is responsible for bringing the hand-carved toy (then called a bandalore) from the Philippines in the 1920s and starting the first Yo-Yo manufacturing company.  So either way, the community of Yo-Yo enthusiasts owe a lot to the Filipinos.

So the next time you see a kid with a Yo-Yo, TAKE IT AWAY FROM THEM.  Yo-Yos are dangerous weapons that should only be used for sport.

This has been a Wile E. Filipino Public Service Annoucement.  We now return you to your regularly scheduled complaining about life.

The Epiphany du Jour

I don’t know if I’d say I’ve been an idiot, exactly, these last couple months, but I’ve definitely become someone I’ve never wanted to be.  I’ve never wanted to be paralyzed by fear the way I have been since I found out that TGI(W)D kissed another guy.  It’s hard for me, the cheating thing I mean, because it’s become a common theme in my relationships.

This doesn’t excuse her behavior, but it doesn’t excuse my reaction to it, either.  When I found out about the other guy, it awoke in me a sense of entitlement.  As if I had punched the clock with this relationship and I was due some compensation.  I started to talk about what I deserve, and don’t get me wrong, I know that I deserve to be treated better than to be cheated on, but this newly awakened sense of “what’s in it for me?” was presiding over all my decisions.  And with that came the fear that if I were to put myself out there to be vulnerable, I’m risking too much.  It’s a knee jerk reaction like Turtles pulling their heads and feet inside their shells, or Squirrels darting up a tree.  And for me, it manifested itself as me sitting in my apartment and burning through my DVD collection and my roommate’s.  In some ways we are programmed by nature to react, or be conditioned, that way.  But one of the things that separates us from the other creatures of the world is choice.

And as I’ve been reading over some of my past posts, I’ve started to wonder what happened to that guy.  Why did that strong, level-headed, self-respecting guy turn into this pile of mush that would settle for “better than nothing.”

I’ve always been a What If kind of guy.  My peace of mind depends on whether I choose to focus on the negative What Ifs–the kind that keep you from doing or saying something, versus the positive What Ifs–the kind that encourage you to take a chance.  After living with the negative so long, it took me a while but now I know that the latter is the road less traveled.  That is where my strength has been hiding.

There will always be a reason not to do something.  And yet, things still get done.  The way I see it I have two choices:  I could start a Lord of the Rings movie marathon or I could go and live my life.

“Get Busy Living, or Get Busy Dying.”  –The Shawshank Redemption